Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX), which rose 6.19% or 1.525 points to trade at 26.175 at the close. Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) added 4.43% or 0.105 points to end at 2.475 and Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX) was up 4.29% or 0.100 points to 2.430 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Worleyparsons Ltd (ASX:WOR), which lost 4.83% or 0.470 points to trade at 9.260 in late trade. Drillsearch Energy Ltd (ASX:DLS) declined 3.51% or 0.040 points to end at 1.100 and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) shed 3.17% or 0.270 points to 8.250.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 531 to 455 and 185 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.33% to 13.588.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.31% or 3.70 to $1195.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.89% or 0.46 to hit $52.37 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.54% or 0.32 to trade at $59.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7592, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 90.92.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.18% at 99.92.